Twilit Tales
by Rhymetimeguy
Summary: After being imprisoned for thousands of years, Kerindorf is telling Cyrus the Historian about the Link of his time, and the calamity he prevented.
1. Prolouge: Unnatural Discoveries

Ten-thousand years after the triumph of the Hero of Time against Ganondorf, the King of Darkness rose again. He took advantage of a wayward Twili and used him to regain his body and wreak havok on the land of Hyrule once again. Until Link, the Hero of Twilight, helped by his friend, Midna, the Exiled Princess of the Twili, stopped him, as Link's ancestor had done ten-thousand years before.

After his success, Link said goodbye to Midna, and she left for the Twilight Realm. Link continued his life as a renowned hero, and settled down in the village of Ordon, with his wife, Ilia, a woman of whom Link had loved dearly since he was just a boy. And on went Link's line of decendents, until the thirty-seventh birthday of Link's great-great grandson, Cyrus.

Cyrus was fascinated by the past, he lived for it. It was his dream to know the history of the most important family in Hyrulian history, his own. He found many records of previous incarnations of heroes. Such as the Hero of Minish, a Link who worked with a sorcerer named Enzlo, who was turned into a hat by his apprentice, Vaati, when Vaati was attempting to take over Hyrule. He also found records of an unknown adventure by the Hero of Time, who fell into a mysterious world, in which all of the people were the same, but different. They had the same faces, but no one was the same. Cyrus hated this story, it creeped him out.

Cyrus was currently working on excavating a structure that he believed to be tied to the Hero of the Skies, who seemed to be the first ever Link in recorded history. He hoped the structure would be able to help him understand what this Link's objective was, and to see whether he had anything to do with the fact that evil only seemed to creep upon his family.

Cyrus was standing outside structure, if it could be called that anymore. By now it seemed to be a pile of rocks. If Cyrus hadn't seen a map to this place with his own eyes, he wouldn't believe it had any importance at all. But it was, and he was determined to discover its secret.

"Hey, Cyrus! I don't think I can do this alone!" Called Damori, a Goron he hired to help with his excavation. Damori was tasked with carrying rubble from the monsterous mounds of it scattered around the site. He was barely holding up a boulder three-quarters his size, which, even for a Goron, was a bit much.

"By Hylia! Someone go help him!" Cyrus cried to the other Gorons, who he had hired alongside Damori. Cyrus knew he had no chance of helping Damori. If he tried, he would certainly be crushed under the weight of the stone. And as Cyrus had no intention of being crushed, he decided it was best if he called another Goron to help. "Bolora! Please!"

Bolora, another Goron, rushed over to Damori immediately. He arrived just in time for Damori's arms giving out, which left the weight of the boulder in Bolora's hands. Cyrus called over another Goron to help Bolora and Damori, which solved the situation.

A while after this fiasco, Cyrus decided to walk amongst the rubble, looking for anything particularly important. He hoped for anything, this was his furthest venture back in time he'd ever taken, and little was to be found. He was ecstatic when he found the map that led to this area, and set out immediately.

Cyrus began to fe exhilerated, he loved learning about history, and just the memory of his excitement at the discovery of the map was thrilling.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the reason Cyrus was exhilarated. He was, in fact, falling to his death.

Cyrus was so absorbed in his reminiscince, he didn't notice the sharp drop into a severely large pit just behind his excavation site.

Quite luckily, Damori had discovered the pit as well, and was conveniently in the right position to catch Cyrus.

The collision with Damori's arms snapped Cyrus out of his memories. He looked around quickly, and then fell out of Damori's arms. "Why, in the name of _Din_, am I down here!" Snapped Cyrus.

"Well, I think you walked off the edge up there." Replied Damori, kindly, as he pointed up toward the ledge from which Cyrus fell.

Cyrus was in a frenzy, as one would be, when they almost died. "What is this place? And why didn't you tell me about it when you found it!" He demanded.

Damori frowned, "Aren't you glad I saved your life? I did do so, after all." Damori was very simplistic, and didn't see how Cyrus could be mad at him for breaking his fall. He was also curious about the pit himself, so he decided to explore a bit before telling Cyrus.

Cyrus sighed. "You're right, I apologise for my rudeness. Thank you for catching me." And with that, Cyrus began to look around.

The pit he fell into was cylindrical, with a spiraling pathway lowering into it, like a corkscrew. On the bottom was a flat surface, with quite a lot of dust. But in the middle of the platuea, was a small spire. Cyrus almost knocked Damori over when he jumped up and ran to the bottom, taking care not ro fall again.

When Cyrus reached the bottom, he examined the spire more closely. He found that it was triangular, with three symbols on each side. One, was three wavy lines, with the top and bottom hosting a single dot, on opposite sides. Another had three dots, aranged in a triangular pattern, with three semicircles in between them. The final symbol, was of a single dot, with a semicirlce to the left of it, and a larger semicircle to the left of the first semicircle.

Cyrus recognized these as the symbols of Power, Wisdom, and Courage, respectively. And knew he came across something big. Only extraordinarily important items had these symbols, and to have all three...

Cyrus began to wipe the dust away from the floor, and found markings, almost entirely faded away. He ignored them, the spire was obviously the most important piece of the structure.

Cyrus reached out to touch the spire, and regretted it instantly.

Cyrus recoiled as the floor began to erupt with black smoke, the spire rose from the ground, revealing a pointed bottom, like a stake. "So it was driven into the ground..." muttered Cyrus, in spite of his situation. He would mentally note everything he saw, in case it would help him uncover truths later. "That is, if there _is_ a later." Cyrus thought to himself.

The smoke covered the floor, making it entirely black. Cyrus began to edge up the pathway, making sure not to touch the black.

The pool of darkness enveloped the floor, still emitting small coils of smoke that dispelled shortly after leaving the ground. Until a large coil rose out of the middle of the black. No, not smoke, this was solid.

The black figure rose from the darkness, and stretched. It looked Hylianoid, like it was of the three races, Hylian, Goron, or Zora. But it didn't have the fish-like qualities of the Zora, nor the girth of the Gorons. And it didn't look quite Hylian, either.

The black that consealed the figure slowly began to drip away from its body, revealing brown skin, and red hair. It looked like what Cyrus was told a Gerudo looked like, although it looked like a male. And that was... concerning.

When the black finally stripped itself of the figure, it began to sink back into the hole that the spire had sat in.

The spire, where was the spire? Cyrus had possibly released an ancient evil, if that happened, he was making damned sure he was able to learn about the history of Hyrule for it.

And then he saw it. The spire, no, the _seal_, was sticking right out of the figure's chest. Directly where its heart should be.

The figure cracked its knuckles, looked around, and caught Cyrus's eye. The figure smiled. "Hello," it rumbled. "My name is Kerindorf, do you have anything to eat? Being imprisoned for a few millennium really does a number on your appetite."


	2. Chapter One: Clash of Arrogance

Cyrus was dumbfounded. Certainly something that had to be imprisoned within such a impenetrable seal just _had_ to be dangerous, right? But this, person, seemed positively nice. How was this person deemed unfit for society? It was absurd!

Unless this character wasn't as kind as he seemed, "Maybe, _maybe_, he's trying to manipulate me." Cyrus thought. And so Cyrus resolved to take the character's words with a grain of salt.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here!" Cyrus called to the character.

The dark-skinned hylianoid sighed, "I told you, my name is Kerindorf, and at the moment, I'm waiting for the food I requested."

After this show of satire, Cyrus found it much easier to distrust the character. "I _mean_, what have you done to be sealed here for so long! A few millennium, I believe you put it?"

Kerindorf raised his eyebrows. "If you get me some food, I will answer you." he put simply.

Cyrus did not enjoy being undermined like that, or in any way. "You are not getting a single morsel until I know exactly what kind of risk you pose."

Kerindorf's eyebrows raised higher on his head. He, too, was not used to being undermined. "Then I suppose we're at a stalemate. Now, if you don't mind, I'll be getting that food now."

And Kerindorf began to walk toward the spiral pathway. Directly toward Cyrus.

Kerindorf walked right past Cyrus, leaving him dumbfounded again. By the time Cyrus came to his senses, Kerindorf was already much higher up than he was. Cyrus quickly scrambled after him.

When Kerindorf was almost halfway up, Cyrus finally caught up with him. "I-I, told y-you to sto-op." said Cyrus, breathing heavily.

"And I told you I was getting food," sighed Kerindorf, "or did you forget again?"

"Don't g-go any-anywhere!" Cyrus wheezed, now clutching his knees to stay upright.

Kerindorf paused, and slowly turned toward the exhausted hylian. He tilted his head slightly, as if deciding something. Kerindorf nodded, and then extended his arm out.

And pushed Cyrus over.

By the time Cyrus regained the strength to lift himself up again, he had rolled down quite a bit of the pathway, and Kerindorf had walked further up the pathway, rendering the gap between them larger than it would have been otherwise. Cyrus groaned at the prospect of running uphill for so long. But he trudged on.

Cyrus crawled up the pathway for what seemed like half an hour. Surely Kerindorf was gone by now, right? But to Cyrus's surprise, Kerindorf was actually stopped near the top, engaging in a conversation with Damori the Goron, provisions in both of their hands.

Cyrus was outraged, how _dare_ Damori give this person the food he'd provided for the expedition! Cyrus struggled to his feet and tried to walk as purposefully as possible. Which really just became a strained waddle.

Cyrus opened his mouth to speak, but was interupted by Kerindorf, who spoke thickly, as his mouth was full of an apple he'd been given. "Hurloh, I thee 'oov 'ade ih. Wy 'ont oo oin oos?"

"What in Hyrule did you just say?" Demanded Cyrus, who was turning out to be exceptionally good at demanding things.

Kerindorf held up a finger and chewed quickly. "Sorry, I said, 'Hello, I see you've made it. Why don't you join us?' I thought it would be nice after knocking you over. Don't you think?"

Cyrus was outraged. How _dare_ he come into his architectial dig, eat his provisions, and offer him what was originally his? It was ridiculous!

"Damori, please push this man down to the bottom of the pit again." Said Cyrus, pretentiously. "Let's see how he likes being knocked over."

Damori was unsure of what to do, his boss just gave him an order, and as per his contract, he was obligated to follow it. But the man he was asking him to harm seemed very nice. So, conflicted, Damori decided to meet them in the middle and give Kerindorf a vigorous poke in the chest.

This, according to everyone there, except Cyrus, was probobly the worst decision.

Kerindorf doubled over in pain. The Seal, which Kerindorf and Cyrus had forgotten about, had been drove deeper into his chest. Damori recoiled at what he'd done. He'd just been chatting with the man, and now he'd caused him great pain. Damori tried to lift Kerindorf up, but Kerindorf refused him, and instead opted to stay on the ground.

Cyrus could not have been happier. The potential threat that had teased him since he'd been summoned was on the ground. Cyrus pressed his advantage, and decided to roll Kerindorf back down the spiraling pathway before he could recover.

By the time they reached the bottom, Kerindorf was regaining his senses, and now understood what was happening to him. He stood up to find his enemy sat at the edge of the spiral path, holding a bow and quiver. A bow that was all too farmilliar to Kerindorf.

Before Kerindorf could ask about the bow, Cyrus began to speak. "I inherited this from a great hero, an ancestor of mine. I've trained well with this. Now, you _will _tell me why you were trapped in that Seal. And of you try to escape, I will shoot you." Cyrus stood up and pointed his bow at Kerindorf. "And I'm a very good shot."

Kerindord sighed, the only thing he really wanted at the moment was food. Being a Gerudo, he had lived in the desert, and could go long periods if time without water. So food was his only problem at the moment.

Well, that and the man holding the bow in front of him.

Kerindorf sighed again, he didn't really have any choice in the matter. Although he decided that he'd try one last time.

"I suppose I'll have to tell you then," Kerindorf sighed, "but for the love of Hylia, can't I just have something to eat?"

Cyrus was about to turn down the offer point blank. But he then remembered how upset Damori was when he'd hurt Kerindorf. Cyrus thought that bringing Kerindorf food would help him cope. So, however reluctantly, Cyrus asked for Damori to bring in some of their rations for Kerindorf.

After taking the food from Damori, and constantly reassuring him that he was, indeed, fine, Kerindorf ate the rations hungrily. He ate until he was left with no more food, and a much fuller stomach.

Kerindorf leaned against a wall, savoring the food that had eluded him for the past few thousand years. All the while, Cyrus was getting impatient, and angrily tapped his foot to the ground in increasing decibals until Kerindorf finally heard it and understood that Cyrus was tired of waiting.

"I suppose you'll want me to start now?" Kerindorf asked, exasperated. Cyrus slightly widened his eyes and nodded sarcastically.

Once more, Kerindord sighed. "Alright, I'll tell you. But it'll take a while."

Cyrus was stubborn, at this point the story could take the rest of his life to tell and he'd still want to hear it out of spite. "Oh, I think I'll manage."

Kerindorf examined the boy, he really was quite formidable. No one he ever knew was brave enough to try to outright undermine him at every turn. He was either very brave, or very arrogant. And after some consideration, Kerindorf decided on the latter.

Kerindorf took a deep breath. He wasn't kidding, this really was going to take a while to explain.

He thought of what the others had told him about their travels, before they'd met him. If he was going to fill Cyrus in, then he was at least going to do it correctly.

After he gathered his thoughts, and decided that he had a good idea of how to explain it, Kerindorf closed his eyes, and began his tale.


End file.
